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Thursday, May 18, 2017

Straight From the Mouth of Mark Oristano

Mark Oristano has been a professional writer/journalist since the age of 16.

After growing up in suburban New York,
Oristano moved to Texas in 1970
to attend Texas Christian
University. A major in Mass
Communications, Mark was hired by WFAA-TV in 1973 as a sports reporter, the
start of a 30-year career covering the NFL and professional sports.

Mark has worked with notable broadcasters including Verne Lundquist, Oprah
Winfrey and as a sportscaster for the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network and Houston
Oilers Radio Network. He has covered Super Bowls and other major sports
events throughout his career. He was part of Ron Chapman’s legendary
morning show on KVIL-FM in Dallas
for nearly 20 years.

In 2002 Oristano left broadcasting to pursue his creative interests,
starting a portrait photography business and becoming involved in theater
including summer productions with Shakespeare Dallas. He follows his daughter
Stacey’s film career who has appeared in such shows as Friday Night Lights and Bunheads.

A veteran stage actor in Dallas, Mark Oristano was writer and performer for
the acclaimed one-man show “And Crown Thy Good: A True Story of 9/11.”

Oristano authored his first book, A Sportscaster’s Guide to Watching Football:
Decoding America’s Favorite
Game.A Sportcaster’s Guide offers inside tips about how to watch
football, including stories from Oristano’s 30-year NFL career, a look at
offense, defense and special teams, and cool things to say during the game to
sound like a real fan.

In 2016 Oristano finished his second book, Surgeon’s Story, a true
story about a surgeon that takes readers inside the operating room during open
heart surgery. His second book is described as a story of dedication, talent,
training, caring, resilience, guts and love.

In 1997, Mark began volunteering at Children’s Medical
Center in Dallas,
working in the day surgery recovery room. It was at Children’s that Mark
got to know Kristine Guleserian, MD, first to discuss baseball, and later, to
learn about the physiology, biology, and mystery of the human heart. That
friendship led to a joint book project, Surgeon’s Story, about Kristine’s
life and career.

WEBSITE
& SOCIAL LINKS:

What is it like to hold the beating heart of a two-day old
child in your hand?What is it like to
counsel distraught parents as they make some of the most difficult decisions of
their lives?

Noted
pediatric heart surgeon Dr. Kristine Guleserian has opened up her OR, and her
career, to author

Mark Oristano to create Surgeon’s Story - Inside OR-6 With a top
Pediatric Heart Surgeon.

Dr. Guleserian’s life, training and work are discussed in
detail, framed around the incredibly dramatic story of a heart transplant
operation for a two-year old girl whose own heart was rapidly dying.Author Mark Oristano takes readers inside the
operating room to get a first-hand look at pediatric heart surgeries most
doctors in America
would never attempt.

That’s because Dr. Guleserian is recognized as one of the
top pediatric heart surgeons in America,
one of a very few who have performed a transplant on a one-week old baby. Dr.
Guleserian (Goo-liss-AIR-ee-yan) provided her
expertise, and Oristano furnished his writing skills, to produce A
Surgeon’s Story.

As preparation to write this stirring book, Oristano spent
hours inside the operating room at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas watching
Guleserian perform actual surgeries that each day were life or death
experiences. Readers will be with Dr. Guleserian on her rounds, meeting with
parents, or in the Operating Room for a heart transplant.

Oristano is successful sportscaster and photographer and has
made several appearances on stage as an actor. He wrote his first book A
Sportscaster’s Guide to Watching Football: Decoding America’s Favorite Game, and continues to volunteer at Children’s MedicalCenter.

“We hear a lot about malpractice and failures in medical
care,” says Oristanto, “but I want my readers to know that parts of the
American health care system work brilliantly. And our health care system will
work even better if more young women would enter science and medicine and
experience the type of success Dr. Guleserian has attained.”

Readers will find all the drama, intensity, humor and
compassion that they enjoy in their favorite fictionalized medical TV drama,
but the actual accounts in Surgeon’s Story are even more
compelling. One of the key characters in the book is 2-year-old Rylynn who was
born with an often fatal disorder called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and
was successfully treated by Dr. Guleserian.

FOR
MORE INFORMATION:

Thanks for letting us interrogate you!Can you give us a go-for-the-gut answer as to
why you wanted to be an author?

I’ve been writing since I was sixteen. I’m now 65. It’s
ingrained.

Tell us (we won’t tell promise!) is it all it’s cracked up
to be?I mean what are the perks and
what are the demands?

I don’t enjoy writing. I enjoy having written.

Which route did you take – traditional or self-published –
and can you give us the nitty gritty low down on what’s that like?

We had much interest from New York
publishers, however they all insisted the book be in the doctor’s first person
voice. She refused, saying this was too egotistical. So we self-published. It’s
more expensive, but it’s also more rewarding if you work it right.

What’s the snarkiest thing you can say about the publishing
industry?

It’s like William Goldman said about Hollywood:
“Nobody here knows anything.”

Tell us for real what your family feels about you spending
so much time getting your book written, polished, edited, formatted, published,
what have you?

It’s my job. My wife teaches Pilates. I write.

What was the craziest or insane thing that happened to you
in the book publishing process?

For this book? It was the first time I saw a human heart
closeup. It had been taken out of a 16-year old during a transplant. They put
it in a dish and moved it to the other side of the OR. I went to look at it. And
it beat!

How about the social networks?Which ones do you believe help and which ones
do you wish you could avoid?

I’m big on Facebook. The others I’m weak.

Book sales.Don’t you
just love them (or lack of?)?How are
you making the sales happen for you?

There are three tricks. The first is publicity. When you’re
done with that, you need publicity. And when that’s finished, a big dose of
publicity really helps.

What is one thing you’d like to jump on the rooftop and
scream about?

WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE FIND A WAY
TO GET ME DOWN OFF THIS DAMNED ROOF!

Okay, too much sugar for you today!Here’s a nice cup of Chamomile tea and come
on over and sit under the cabana and watch the waves roll in.Now…can you tell us what you love about being
a published author and how all those things above doesn’t matter because it’s
all part of the whole scheme of things and you wouldn’t have it any other way?

As a writer and actor (stage) I’m a storyteller. I think
that stories bind us, make us realize our common humanity. In the theater we go
through weeks of arduous, soul-searching rehearsal to find out who our
characters are. In writing, we cut open veins and bleed into the computer to
flesh out our stories. People will see them and be changed.